Voluntariness and Compulsoriness in Conservation: Legal and Ethical Considerations

This article deals with the so-called voluntary means in nature conservation. The perspective is that of moral, political and legal theory. It focuses on the METSO programme that addresses the biodiversity conservation in private forests in Southern Finland. METSO consists of new instruments that emphasise voluntariness. In ge­neral, there are many voluntary means or instruments to be recognised, but they all share the characteristic of "soft policies" in their attempts to affect individuals' and other actors' behaviour. The article distinguishes between two kinds of voluntariness: ethical voluntariness, which means conservation from disinterested motives; and paid voluntariness in which the landowner receives compensation from the government for agreeing to forbear from certain forms of land use. The authors claim that it can undermine the general commitment to the conservationist legislation, po­licies and lifestyle.